Red Hot Turbos

Was running back home the other night from Pulmo area south of Los Barriles back to Cabo and pulled over to grab some food. Anyways when I got out I noticed the Turbos were glowing red hot. I was running the truck hard but not any harder then I normally do down here. Wondering if anyone else has noticed this? Truck was running perfect and running perfect after I ate.

That looks hot! Looks like your upper control arms are glowing too

I’d be curious to see what the temp is with a laser thermometer. I’ve seen brakes look that bright on some track days.

Wow! I know some of the diesels used to recommend letting the engine idle to allow the turbo to cool off after running hard. It lets the oil keep circulating. Probably not a bad idea.

GCATX said:

Wow! I know some of the diesels used to recommend letting the engine idle to allow the turbo to cool off after running hard. It lets the oil keep circulating. Probably not a bad idea.

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First off, I’m not disputing this. Good advice and I’d do the same.

Back when the Ecoboost was first coming out, I attended a seminar led by a Ford engineer on the EB program. I remember him mentioning that one of the reasons Ford was so confident about putting a twin-turbo engine into the hands of the average idiot, was because Ford had figured out how to keep the fluids circulating with the engine off.

I wish like hell I remembered more of what he said, but this was well over 10 years ago.

If you were just driving average (speed limit, no real load on the turbo) you should have no issue with just shutting the engine off without a cool down period. I have seen this (glowing turbos) on my first Raptor that I had heavily modified, most of the time it was after pulling a trailer and the turbos were always under a load. It is a good idea to let the truck idle for a bit to circulate the fluids, monitor the oil temp is the best recommendation without having a temp gun on the turbo or an EGT gauge.

I do the same with my diesel and our race cars that are turbo as well. If you shut down the engine, after running with a load on the turbo, you will risk having coking in the turbo from the fluids being flashed. May also risk the seal failure on the turbo as well. The only reason I can think of the fluids circulating after the engine was off would be if they have some circulation pump for the fluids.

Mister Pinky said:

First off, I’m not disputing this. Good advice and I’d do the same.

Back when the Ecoboost was first coming out, I attended a seminar led by a Ford engineer on the EB program. I remember him mentioning that one of the reasons Ford was so confident about putting a twin-turbo engine into the hands of the average idiot, was because Ford had figured out how to keep the fluids circulating with the engine off.

I wish like hell I remembered more of what he said, but this was well over 10 years ago.

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It's due to modern turbochargers being water cooled. Once the engine is shut off, convection keeps the coolant circulating through the components to remove residual heat.

FordTechOne said:

It's due to modern turbochargers being water cooled. Once the engine is shut off, convection keeps the coolant circulating through the components to remove residual heat.

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Thank you. That was it.

FordTechOne said:

It's due to modern turbochargers being water cooled. Once the engine is shut off, convection keeps the coolant circulating through the components to remove residual heat.

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I was always taught to never shut off a turbo engine right after running it hard. To let it run at low load or idle for a couple of minutes so you didn't coke the oil. Is that still a good idea with these modern engines with the water cooled turbos?

Glowing turbos and exhaust manifolds/pipes are NORMAL. They're glowing in the daytime too, but you can't tell because well, sunlight.

I'm not aware of the plumbing on other factory turbo engines, but for sure the ecoboost turbos are oil and water cooled, specifically plumbed to allow the continuous circulation as mentioned earlier, so there is no problem with shutting it down after driving, UNLESS you were pulling a heavy load and abruptly stop. In most cases of highway running, there is plenty of time from the point you let off the gas for exit and you finally get to your stopping point to shut 'er down without another thought about it.

Even if you just ran a WOT 1/4 mile run, by the time you get back to your pit spot, it's already cooled enough to shut 'er down.